Global Beat: Zuma Resigns, Syrian War Escalates, and More
February 16, 2018
In:
Global Beat is your weekly stop for news from around the world. Join us every Friday morning for important stories you should know about.
This week, Jacob Zuma resigns as president of South Africa; the civil war in Syria escalates; the U.S. intelligence community braces for Russian hacking in the 2018 midterms; and more.
____________________
Americas
Director of U.S. National Intelligence (DNI) Dan Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the Russian government will work to influence the United States’ 2018 midterm elections, just as they did in 2016. "Frankly, the United States is under attack," Coats said. Heads of multiple agencies in the intelligence community were present at the annual hearing on worldwide threats, including CIA Director Mike Pompeo, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers, among others. The annual report discussed at the open hearing marked China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia as the greatest threats to U.S. cybersecurity. The agency heads said that there is no unified command to counter hacking of elections.
Also check out:
Central & South Asia
The Chinese military is in the process of upgrading the deep-water Gwadar port in Pakistan into a port that can be used for naval warships, as well as shipping. This port will become the second Chinese military base on foreign soil, with a proposed military airfield next to the naval base. Their other foreign base is a naval base in Djibouti. Expansion of Chinese military presence in South Asia comes at the same time as Chinese expansion of economic interests in the region, along with the "One Belt, One Road" initiative.
Also check out:
China & East Asia
Since North Korean leader Kim Jung-un indicated North Korea’s willingness to join the Olympic Games, South Korea and the United States have suspended war-games and military exercises in the region. This diplomatic success comes as North Korea has continued its hacking and malware campaigns on unsuspecting targets across the globe, including against South Korean banks, and possibly also the Olympic Games and International Olympic Committee. While South Korea seems increasingly willing to work with North Korea, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said Japan, South Korea, and the United States must remain vigilant against North Korea. Additionally, DNI Coats said "decision time" on North Korea is near at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing this week.
Also check out:
Europe & Russia
Italian far-right political party Lega Nord (Northern League) stated that they want to pull Italy, a founding member of the EU and its preceding economic treaties, out of the European Union if fiscal and immigration laws are not renegotiated. Polling at 16 percent, they are expected to join forces with the Forza Italia party of media mogul and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and to form a coalition to take power in upcoming parliamentary elections in March. The resurgence of the northern nationalist party comes as much of Europe, including neighbors France and Austria, has experienced a similar rise in popularity of anti-EU, anti-immigrant, nationalist parties.
Also check out:
- U.S. Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III indicts 13 Russians for meddling in 2016 presidential election – Bloomberg
Middle East & North Africa
The civil war in Syria is escalating and increasingly international in nature. Recently, Turkey launched an offensive in northern Syria against Kurdish forces with Russian approval; Israel shot down an Iranian drone in Israeli airspace, then targeted Syrian and Iranian government forces with airstrikes, and had an F-16 warplane shot down by Syrian forces; and the United States killed multiple Russian mercenaries in an airstrike against private military firms backing the Syrian government while the Russian forces were attacking the Syrian Democratic Forces, a militia the United States supports. Experts are worried that the conflict risks mutating into an even wider-reaching affair.
Also check out:
Southeast Asia & Oceania
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is urging the UN Security Council to hold the Myanmar military responsible for ethnic cleansing in response to the persisting Rohingya crisis. Haley called the denials of ethnic cleansing by Myanmar president and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi "preposterous." Experts told Pacific Council members on a teleconference call that the international response to the continued ethnic cleansing campaign against the Muslim minority in the northern Rakhine state has been severely lacking. Read more about their analysis.
Also check out:
- Scandal swirls around Thailand’s junta at an awkward moment – The Economist
Sub-Saharan Africa
Jacob Zuma resigned as president of South Africa on Wednesday following mounting accusations of corruption. His resignation came just before a planned vote of "no confidence or impeachment" by the African National Congress, the party of Nelson Mandela that has held power since the end of apartheid in 1994. Cyril Ramaphosa, a former anti-apartheid activist and successful businessman, was elected unanimously by parliament to replace Zuma as president. In his speech to the ANC, President Ramaphosa said, "The lives of our people have been improving on an ongoing basis," and pledged to fight the corruption and reduce the politicization that Zuma brought upon important South African institutions.
Also check out:
- Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe opposition leader, has died: From a nickel miner to an icon – Al Jazeera
